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The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male
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Fifteen years ago, when it was first published, "The Transsexual Empire" challenged the medical psychiatric definition of transsexualism as a disease and sex conversion hormones and surgery as the cure. It exposed the antifeminist stereotyping that requires candidates for transsexual surgery to prove themselves by conforming to subjective, outdated and questionable feminin
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Paperback, 264 pages
Published
March 1st 1994
by Teachers College Press
(first published January 1st 1979)
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I agree with the mindset and politics of Janice Raymond, for she is correct. Men, by their aggressive command and conquer nature wish to infiltrate every detail of womanhood or anything not naturally inaccessible for men in this world. There cannot be a domain they feel they cannot infiltrate and take over, that is solely a woman's. Our womanhood, they want access, to own and be apart of everything. We are only fools to sit idle with encouragement. I agree with Janice Raymond; she simply was awa
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I feel nothing but contempt for this women and her abysmal waste of paper.
Fuck Janice Raymond. I don't really think theres anything else to say.
Where to begin? Hate-filled? Yes. Illogical? Yes. Does the author contradict herself? Yes. It's basically a big mess, thanks in part to Mary Daly's guidance, no doubt. Just your average, typical, second-wave, lesbian feminist separatist diatribe against anyone who doesn't fit into the author's view of what a woman is or should be. Simply awful. However, I think it is useful to see where people with these views are coming from, if only to be prepared to explain to them what ignorant asses they ar
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Aug 12, 2007
Susan
added it
Glutton for punishment that I am, reading up on the history of 70s lesbian feminist transphobia, I thought I might as well read the Mein Kamf of the genre, where lots of little discourses that had been circulating for nearly a decade finally got woven into one, big, breathtakingly paranoid fantasy. Yes, it really is as bad as I remembered it to be.
This historic piece of phlegminism is the reason I could not get my insurance to cover my hormone replacement therapy until section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act #ThanksObama. Janice Raymond is probably best known for her collaborations with other feminists like Ronald Reagan, Bill O'Reilly, and most recently the majority Republican majority male South Dakota legislature. This book began the long strategy of bullying transgender women to prevent violence against cisgender women, which has been
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An excellent book - maybe not perfectly written, and maybe a bit camp - but certainly makes the interesting point that the trans-industry can easily be seen as an extension of the all-consuming nature of the male; the ultimate control of women being the co-opting of their very bodies. She does not shy away from showing up the notion that men who have their bodies reworked can somehow claim womanhood, when in fact they may only have a moderately feminised form. Is being a women more than breasts
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I hate this book so much I wrote a paper in college tearing it apart.
Seriously, this is the most fucked up book in existence.
Raymond’s term “transsexual empire” refers to the business of medicalizing distress around sex and sex roles, not a belief that seeking transition makes one villainous. She believes that refusing to conform to roles has great revolutionary potential, and that therapeutic/medical intervention domesticates this revolutionary potential, directing focus towards assimilation instead of challenging the source of gender dysphoria as a culturally iatrogenic illness created by woman-hating and reinforced
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If I could give it negative stars I would.
In regards to the (in)famous quote from this book, "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves..." How does that even make sense? Transgender people are not "raping" anyone else's body by exercising their right to autonomy over their own bodies. Last time I checked, the idea that what someone does with their body is their choice and doesn't magically affect anyone else was one of the fundamentals of feminism.
janice raymond set out to write a book to prove what she had already a priori decided--that we are all liars--and then dropped a chapter of pure vitriolic untruths in the middle. the arguments presented here have resulted in the denial of medical treatment for thousands of individuals, as she boasts in the preface to the 1994 edition, and social stigmatization. a book that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of my sisters.
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Janice Raymond is one of the reasons feminism has a bad rep. Ms. Raymond is arguably the person most responsible for the deaths of thousands of trans women. Congratulations, Ms. Raymond; you've earned your spot in the Who's Who Honor Roll of bigotry!
I admit to hate reading this ten years ago. That was a mistake. Don't read this pile of transphobic crap, burn it and consign it to the dustbin of history.
I bet you're shocked that I'm not a big fan of this book.
There are those that read poo, and they should put this on their list. Ruining lives since 1985.
The funniest thing I've read all year!
Janice Raymond shut up forever challenge
You won't know whether to laugh or cry. Janice Raymond is a blemish on the already-shaky credibility of second wave feminist rhetoric, perpetuating more misconceptions & straight up making shit up about transwomen, gender & power in society than you thought was possible in a single book.
The entire books belongs on the garbage heap of history.
My rating is misleading. Were it not for this book, I would never have taken the most wonderful step in my life - the decision to have children with my partner. Janice Raymond is therefore partly to be thanked for the existence of two human beings in the world who would never have been born otherwise. She's also not entirely devoid of compassion. This book was written at a time before opinions on trans issues became entrenched and crystallised.
BUT:
She's wrong. Her book wa ...more
BUT:
She's wrong. Her book wa ...more
Never before have I wished more that a zero star rating existed, but hey, I did learn one thing so maybe that's worth a star. I'll get to that later.
I've never read anything more self aggrandizing and unnecessarily vilifying than this book, but hey, who doesn't love to read the word 'she-male' in 2019 being adamantly defended as if the existence of others going about their daily lives has any impact on your own whatsoever! Raymond truly is someone I'd love to meet just to make her pay for my co ...more
I've never read anything more self aggrandizing and unnecessarily vilifying than this book, but hey, who doesn't love to read the word 'she-male' in 2019 being adamantly defended as if the existence of others going about their daily lives has any impact on your own whatsoever! Raymond truly is someone I'd love to meet just to make her pay for my co ...more
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One of the most influential pieces of writing towards my work. Also terribly written, terribly researched, bizarrely Catholic and really just all round a putrid disgusting mess of an ideological work.
May 18, 2010
everypiece
added it
It's a shame that such a great name was wasted on such a hateful, pointless book.
Oct 22, 2015
R.. Mark Hamilton
added it
Transphobic feminism.
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